Sorrento is a beautiful town perched on a cliff high above the sea with views of Vesuvius and the islands in the Bay of Naples . Use this website to help you plan a visit to this elegant southern Italian resort and find your way to the best beaches and some lovely villages and towns along the Sorrentine peninsula that are perhaps less well known to tourists.

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Friday, December 30, 2011

Visit Naples to see street of the 'presepio'

A classic Italian presepio with Neopolitan figures

During December churches in Sorrento have had their presepio (nativity scene) on display.

The tradition of recreating the birth of Jesus with a presepio (which literally means crib) dates back to the 13th century in Italy. Many Italian families also have one in their home and you will see shops selling complete stable scenes, or the figures to make your own, in the weeks around Christmas.

An easy trip to make from Sorrento at any time of the year is to Naples, one of the most famous places for production of figures for the presepio. An entire street in the centro storico, Via San Gregorio Armeno, is lined with shops that sell figures and props for the presepio all year round.

Producers have now even branched out into making figures of celebrities, sportsmen and politicians to place in the presepio along with the traditional characters. So don’t be surprised if you see a Barack Obama or a Silvio Berlusconi among the shepherds.

You can travel to Naples from Sorrento either by train, which takes just over an hour, or take a 30-minute hydrofoil ride from the port in Sorrento. Via San Gregorio Armeno can be reached easily on foot from either the station or the port in Naples.

Language point

Presepio or presepe

You will see the words presepio and presepe used to refer to a nativity scene in Italy. The words literally mean ‘crib’.

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SORRENTO GUIDE BOOK

A good guide book for visitors to Sorrento is Frommer's Amalfi Coast, which has a whole chapter devoted to the town and its peninsula, including information on lesser known attractions of the area that other guide books sometimes ignore.

This book takes readers on a tour of the Sorren-

tine Penin-

sula, starting from Castell-

amare di Stabia, with details of other places on the peninsula such as Vico Equense, Massa Lubrense, Sant’Agata su due Golfi, Nerano and Termini.

ITALY ON THIS DAY

CRIME NOVEL SET IN ITALY

DEATH IN THE HIGH CITY

A cosy crime novel set in Lombardy in northern Italy, Death in the High City is believed to be the first British crime novel to use Bergamo as its location.

The book is the first in a series of Butler and Bartorelli Mysteries, featuring detective duo Kate Butler, a journalist, and Steve Bartorelli, a retired Detective Chief Inspector.

Death in the High City centres on the investigation into the death of an English woman who had been staying in the beautiful Città Alta while writing a biography of the Bergamo-born composer Gaetano Donizetti.

Death in the High City is available from Amazon in paperback and as an e-book.

WEATHER IN SORRENTO

Where is Sorrento ?

Sorrento is an historic coastal city in Italy’s Campania region, situated 50km to the south of Naples . It is served by the international airport at Naples and can be reached by rail, road or boat. Sorrento is a good base for visiting the islands of Capri, Ischia and Procida, the Amalfi coast or the Roman ruins at Pompei and Ercolano.

VISIT OUR SISTER SITES

If your love of Italy stretches beyond Sorrento and the south, you may enjoy visiting our sister sites, devoted to the elegant and historic northern Italian cities of Bergamo and Padova.

Situated just north of Milan and close to the lakes and mountains, Bergamo has become a familiar name because of its major international airport but is an attractive place to visit in its own right, combining contemporary sophistication with medieval charm.

Padova, an elegant city in the Veneto less than half an hour by express rail services from Venice, boasts a picturesque historic centre, one of the world's oldest universities and notable buildings including the Scrovegni Chapel, which houses a renowned cycle of frescoes by Giotto that is recognised as a masterpiece of western art.